In known thermo-forming packaging machines, troughs are formed in a lower film web using a forming station. In an inserting track, the troughs are filled with products to be packaged. In a sealing station, the filled troughs are sealed with an upper film. In this process, the packages that are being formed can in particular be evacuated and/or filled with protective gas in order to increase the durability of the packaged products. At a cutting station, the troughs in the lower film web that were filled and closed are separated from one another to obtain individual packages or connected groups of packages. During the packaging process, the lower film web is conveyed along a transport direction using a transport device. The forming station, the inserting track, the sealing station and the cutting station are arranged along the transport direction, for logical reasons in the mentioned order. The forming station, the sealing station and the cutting station can be disposed on a machine rack of the thermo-forming packaging machine. It is known to guide the products to be packaged using one or multiple feeding belts laterally towards the thermo-forming packaging machine in the area of the inserting track, where the products are put into the troughs of the lower film web using a picker or manually. As the distance between the feeding belt and the troughs to be filled has to be overcome each time during transfer of the products from the feeding belt into the troughs, the clocking or cycle time depends inter alia on this distance. The minimum distance that can be achieved between the feeding belt and the lower film web with the troughs formed in said lower film web is limited inter alia by the space requirement of the machine rack and the side claddings on both sides of the thermo-forming packaging machine.
A thermo-forming packaging machine according to a specialized structural form is known from the EP 2 778 079 A1. It comprises a side profile on whose inner side a chain guide for a film clamping chain for transporting the lower film web is disposed. The side profile, which is disposed along the inserting track, is at the same time a part of the product feeder for conveying the products to be packaged to the inserting track. According to this specialized structural form, the product feeding device is formed integrally with the side profile of the thermo-forming packaging machine in order to reduce the distance between the fed products and the troughs to be filled and hence to reduce the ways to be traversed for placement of the products into the troughs. The integration of the product feeder into the side profile of the thermo-forming packaging machine comes with the disadvantage that the thermo-forming packaging machine cannot simply be combined with different product feeding systems depending on the conditions of use. In addition, it is hard to adapt a packaging machine specialized this way to spatial conditions of the location of use.
A different way of feeding products to be packaged to an inserting track of a thermo-forming packaging machine is known from the DE 20 2016 000 757 U1. The thermo-forming packaging machine disclosed therein comprises clamping chains, which are held in chain guides, for holding and transporting the lower film on both sides along the transport direction. The chain guides are oriented horizontally along the forming station and along the sealing station. Along an inserting track that is located between the forming station and the sealing station, the chain guides have an ascending orientation. The chain guides are preferably inclined along the inserting track at an angle of 10° to 30° in relation to the horizontal line. In the obliquely extending inserting track, products to be packaged are inserted directly into the troughs of the lower film via a product inserting belt that extends above the film transport plane in parallel to the transport direction and that is formed as a retraction belt. Both the forming station as well as the sealing station are arranged on a machine rack of the thermo-forming packaging machine. The machine rack is elevated in the area of the sealing station. This ensures that, in spite of the rise of the chain guides between the forming station and the sealing station, the lower film with the formed troughs is fed to the sealing station at a level that is suitable for processing. Hence, the packaging machine requires a specifically adapted machine rack. As the product inserting belt for direct inserting of the products into the troughs extends in parallel to the transport direction above the film transport plane, attention has to be paid during construction of the thermo-forming packaging machine that movable upper parts of the forming station do not come in conflict with the product inserting belt during operation. Direct inserting of products into troughs, which are guided along an ascending area, using a retraction belt can be inappropriate for specific products and trough forms and requires accurate coordination of the operation of the individual components of the packaging machine.
Thermo-forming packaging machines that have complete cutting stations in order to separate multiple packages from a film composite are known from DE 30 20 633 A1 and DE 31 18 946 A1. The cut packages remain on support elements and are transported out of the complete cutting station onto a transport belt, which transports the packages out of the thermo-forming packaging machine and/or further, using drawing forward the remaining film grid. This comes with the disadvantage that the packages are fed uncontrollably to a subsequent working process on the transport belt. In addition and due to the transport belt that follows the complete cutting station, the overall length of the arrangement can become relatively large so that the arrangement cannot be used in narrow spaces.